Portugal no WSJ

Portuguese stocks and bonds have been sold off sharply recently because of Portugal's high long-term deficits and low growth prospects. The government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates faces a deficit that is estimated to have reached 8% of gross domestic product last year and the European Commission has given Portugal until 2013 to bring the deficit below the 3%-of-GDP threshold required by European Union rules.

In October Moody's changed the outlook on Portugal's Aa2 ratings to negative from stable, citing a "trend growth rate in the [Portuguese] economy that is likely to remain relatively low, thereby limiting the government's ability to grow out of its debt problems."

Portugal has had one of the slowest-growing economies in the EU for years. Since 2001, its economy's performance has lagged behind the average growth in the 16 countries now sharing the euro in every year except for 2001 and 2009. The economy's fastest growth during that period was 2%, in 2001, and it has grown by more than 1% only four of the years in that period, while shrinking in two of them.
The Wall Street Journal